My LSAT course instructor from an independent company says to read the question first for logical reasoning questions so "you know what to look for" when reading through the stimulus.

The logical reasoning bible (which has been very popular and recommended for/by users of this board) says that it only wastes time because you are going to read the question again and you should begin by reading the stimulus first.

Does it really waste that much time to read the question first or are there any people out there that highly recommend the bible's strategy of reading stimulus first and then question???

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Whatever works for you personally.I have never found it useful to read the question first though. I wouldn't think that reading the question first would be that much of a waste of time, but I guess I would fall in the highly recommend the bible strategy camp.

I have tried both methods, and I prefer reading the question first. I think different people prefer different methods, so you should try both and decide what works best for you. I don't think it wastes much time at all--I just glance really quick and look for the key word (i.e. assume/principle) and continue right on to the stimulus. I actually think it saves me time because when I don't read the question first, I sometimes find myself reading the stimulus again to answer the question...

I just take a quick glance to see what type of question it is, so that as Im reading the stimulus I know how and where to attack it or to work from...

I really see this as helping, instead of just blankly reading, then reading the question and having to look back...

I don't really understand the school of thought that says it wastes time... first of all... you're gonna have to glance at the question sooner or later anyway... it might as well be before you take the time to read the paragraph... it takes maybe 2 seconds per question, which means 1 minute or so for a section

PS - I just checked your LSN Jesus, we are applying to like 8 of the same schools... my GPA is *&^% compared to yours, but Im engineering... best of luck to ya

I've tried both, but I also found that just glancing at the quesiton first helps me attack the stimulus. I'll glance just long enough to mentally categorize "Strengthen" or "justify the conclusion", and I've found it really helps with prephrasing for me.

I don't think it wastes time, because I only glance at the question enough to figure out what I'm looking for, and don't reread it a second time (unless it's a long or complicated question stem - then I'll read it again to make sure I'm not misreading an important detail).

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President_Baccaga

I never intentionally read the question stem first. Occasionally during the last couple lines of the stimulus, my eyes will wander and I'll see what type of question exists before totally completing the stimulus, but that is not standard practice. When I first started preparing for the exam, I tried reading the question stem first but basically found out quickly that it only acted as a burden or at the very least, did nothing to add to my ability to answer the question correctly. Furthermore, I can now pretty much figure out what the question will be (or at least narrow it to 2-3 possibilities) while reading the stimulus.